While Disney’s new “Snow White” remake has dealt with hurdles for years, one of the chief liabilities for the movie has been polarizing rhetoric from its star, Rachel Zegler.
Since it began production in 2022, the film made headlines due to multiple controversies, including a year-long delay, a debate over how to portray the original fairytale’s dwarfs, and an outspoken lead actress who prompted backlash with her public mockery of the original Disney film and later of supporters of President Donald Trump.
Zegler’s history of social media controversy came to a head on Wednesday after Jonah Platt, the son of one of the film’s producers, Marc Platt, defended his father and slammed Zegler in a now-deleted Instagram comment that he made in response to a social media user who accused his dad of harassing Zegler over her outspoken political views. Variety reported that the producer had personally got involved with the backlash surrounding Zegler after she shared an anti-Israel post while promoting the film in August.
“Yeah, my dad, the producer of [an] enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20-year-old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for,” the younger Platt wrote.
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Zegler’s history of social media controversies goes back to at least 2021. The actress, who would eventually be cast in the family-friendly film, tweeted “F— you” at Trump, later referring to herself as a “nasty nasty b—-.”
The post, from before the film began production in 2022, went viral shortly after the film’s opening weekend, being shared by commentators on the X platform.
She also waded into political controversy last August by signing off in a thread on X by saying, “and always remember, free palestine.”
Some wondered if the political message was a subtle dig at film co-star Gal Gadot, who has defended her home country of Israel’s military response to the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
Zegler generated even more anger in November, when she lashed out at people who voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
“May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace,” the progressive actress posted to Instagram after Trump’s victory, adding, “F— Donald Trump.”
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After swift backlash, Zegler later apologized for the post after reportedly working with a “social media guru” paid by Disney’s team to vet her social media posts leading up to the film’s premiere, according to the report.
“I would like to sincerely apologize for the election post I shared on my Instagram last week. I let my emotions get the best of me. Hatred and anger have caused us to move further and further away from peace and understanding, and I am sorry I contributed to the negative discourse,” she wrote in a subsequent post.
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